We have received this question via email, and we copy it here followed by our reply:

(... I've written this passage on my Facebook account, but many people verbally abused men and criticized me : ... I've spent a year and a half year in Tikrit, Iraq, while it was ruled by ISIS terrorists ... Those terrorists used to impose strange laws whose violators would be put to death ... Any men shaving their beards would be flogged, and if they repeat such 'crime' of shaving, they would be put to death ... Anyone studying English would be put to death ... Those never attending prayers in mosques would be flogged, and if they repeat such 'crime', they would be put to death ... They already massacred any men who used to serve in the Iraqi police and Iraqi army... Women who show any body parts from the imposed niqab would be bitten till they bleed! If such 'crime' is repeated, such women would be flogged 100 times like fornicators, even if she was an elderly woman ... If any family members of both genders protest that their relative has joined ISIS, they would be put to death by hands of that relative ... If anyone tries to flee Tikrit, he would be killed along with his family members and kids ... Of course, ISIS terrorists derived such 'laws' from books of Middle-Ages religious scholars of fiqh and narrators of hadiths, such as Ibn Taymiyya and the founder of Wahabism: M. Ibn Abdul-Wahab, and their likes ... Thousands of inhabitants of Tikrit were killed ... It is strange that there are some sunniest still defend books of the so-called hadiths! ... The catastrophes and calamities of such living hell are still suffered in ISIS-ruled cities like Al-Mosul ... ISIS for sure applies hadiths, but some non-ISIS Sunnites still think that there are some 'true' hadiths, though the whole body of the so-called hadiths are land filled with mines eager to explode ... Most hadiths ascribed falsely to Muhammad show him as a murderer who committed many heinous crimes and killed his enemies in many brutal, savage way ... Why Sunnites of today, then, cannot admit to the fact that hadiths are dangerous and must be discarded? ... What do you think? ...)

OUR REPLY:

Firstly: ISIS terrorists are less savage than 'moderate' Sunnite clergymen and theologians:

1- Let us suppose that ISIS never emerged in Iraq or anywhere else, and Tikrit never occupied by terrorists, would all Sunnites inside the city still accept the falsehood that 'some' hadiths are OK and 'some' are not?! Or would they accept 'all' hadiths without thinking, even the ones filled with mythology and bloody violence? Would they still believe in the biographies written by Ibn Ishaq (and others) ascribing it forcibly to Muhammad? Muhammad is depicted in such biographies as ravisher of women, obsessed with sex, murdering enemies in most brutal ways, etc. to terrorize humankind, not as the Quran says about him as mercy to the humankind (see 21:107). Hence, Sunnites deny and disbelieve in the Quran to believe in such false narratives ascribed to Muhammad after his death.

2- The presence of ISIS terrorists in Tikrit who committed atrocities and heinous crimes of terror should have made Sunnites of Tikrit reject all, not some, hadiths altogether. This message show that many of Sunnites there might reject some hadiths while accepting some that apparently seem OK to them. Some of them never reject even any single hadith. It is silly to admit to the fact that some hadiths are OK and some are fabricated: it is more logical to deem all of them as falsehoods and lies. It is laughter-inducing that the presence of ISIS would lead to rejection of some, not all, hadiths. The atrocities committed embody and apply Sunnite narratives to the letter; this should have led people in Tikrit (and indeed, all Arab cities) to reject the so-called Sunna and adhere only to the Quran as the only true source of Islam. One might wonder, do people of Tikrit need new more brutal Wahabi Sunnite terrorists to occupy their city later on in order to reject Sunna and hadiths altogether?!

3- We assert here that ISIS terrorists, with their massacres, atrocities, and heinous crimes, are more 'moderate' than any other so-called 'moderate' Sunnite scholars and clergymen of today; the reason: Sunnite Wahabi clergymen still teach, and propagate in media, the terrorist Sunnite sharia laws until now all over the Arab world, and Sunnite rules include that a Sunnite ruler may kill one-third of the nation to reform the other remaining two-thirds! For instance, Egypt now has more than 90 million citizens, and Sunnites would read and accept that 30 million of them may be massacred to save the rest! And then, the remaining 60 million might be 40 million if one-third (i.e., 20 million) would be massacred, and so on and so forth! Such nauseating notion is still being taught in the Cairo-based Al-Azhar! Hence, ISIS are still – until now – less savage than such 'moderate' Sunnite sharia law not applied as yet. Right?!

Secondly: clergymen privately own their earthly man-made religions:

1- The only celestial, divine religion is Islam, which literally means two things: 1) submission ONLY to God's commands faithfully and in piety without partners, associates, or deities, or indeed any creatures or mortals, and 2) peaceful behavior in dealing with people. Beliefs differ from one person to another, but it is essential part of Islam to adhere to peaceful, non-violent demeanor with others. differences in beliefs is to be judged ONLY by God on the Day of Resurrection, and NOT by mortals/humans in this life on earth, and this is why God asserts religious freedom, as we infer from the following verse: "If you disbelieve, God is Independent of you, yet He does not approve ingratitude on the part of His servants. And if you are thankful, He will approve that in you. No bearer of burden can bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return; and He will inform you of what you used to do. He is aware of what the hearts contain." (39:7). Hence, the real pious Muslim believers never legislate or invent new laws or sharia in religion and never ascribe falsehoods and lies to God or to Muhammad. The religious views of those who are real pious Muslim believers are personal ones ascribed to themselves, and they never dare to ascribe their views to God or to say they represent Islam. They assert that their views are not perfect and represent only themselves and mat be discussed, refuted, commented upon, corrected, etc. The real pious Muslim believers NEVER commit violence and aggressions against the peaceful, innocent people, and they never use religion in trade to gain money, power, authority, or glory by raising religious mottoes or the name of God to realize worldly/political ambitions.

2- The polytheists/disbelievers are the ones who massacre people while claiming that such crime is a religious duty supported by fabricated sharia laws and hadiths that have formed doctrines and denominations that branched later on. The Sunnite religion has metamorphosed into Wahabism, and Wahabism has caused the emergence of terrorists like the MB, Salafist jihadist, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS. Those persons who join such terrorists are disbelievers in terms of corrupt faith and fabricated notions and in terms of aggressive, violence behavior. For more details, we refer you to our book (in English) titled "The Cursed Religion of ISIS", found on this link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=73

3- The basis of terror in all earthly, man-made religions of the Muhammadans, especially Sunnite Wahabism, is that these religions are privately owned by scholars and clergymen who formulate and fabricate any legislations to serve their purposes. For instance, if some clergymen of any denomination (like the Sufi religion) are passionate about promiscuity, homosexuality, or addiction to hash, they would legislate such practices as part of religious duties. We have explained this in our book on religious life in Egypt during the Mameluke Era when Sufism dominated. Likewise, if clergymen of another denomination (like the Sunnite religion) are keen on power, authority, wealth and bloodshed, their formulated sharia laws will reflect all this and justify any heinous crimes.

4- We have to say that some earthly, man-made religions are peaceful in their natures, such as the Christian Coptic Orthodox religion and the Sufism of the Muhammadans now, but there are other religions that are obsessed with power, authority, and dominating over people, such as the Sunnite religion of the Muhammadans and the Catholicism of the Christians.

Thirdly: the difference between crimes of the Sunnite religion now and the crimes of Catholicism in the past:

1- The crimes committed by Arabs after the death of Muhammad led them to formulate the earthly, man-made religions of Sunnites and Shiites, and henceforth, all crimes committed in later eras in the Middle Ages by Arabs raised quasi-religious mottoes, which later on required the creation of sharia legislations to justify such crimes. This led to the fact that such crimes are repeated in many eras until now by Sunnite Wahabis. Yet some other crimes committed by Europeans under quasi-religious mottoes did not entail religious justification by fabricating laws or sharia legislations, and such crimes became mere history.

2- Thus, writing down fabricated legislations and ascribing them to religions is the major difference. In many cases within history of the Muhammadans, committing crimes preceded formulating and forging legislations to justify them; that is, a tyrannical ruler would declare a view that aimed to justify his crimes (the committed ones or those about to be perpetrated), and religious scholars and theologians of fiqh would later on formulate sharia legislative laws to serve purposes of tyrants and justify their crimes, and those clergymen would readily ascribe such laws to Islamic sharia forcibly. For instance, the four pre-Umayyad caliphs committed crimes of aggression within Arab conquests of many countries, while allowing their troops to massacre, loot, rape, destroy, enslave, etc. in the manner described in detail in our book titled "The Unspoken-of History of the Pre-Umayyad 'Righteous' Caliphs", found in English on this link:

http://www.ahl-alquran.com/arabic/book_main.php?main_id=83

and another book about bloodshed committed by later caliphs. Later on clergymen and theologians of fiqh would readily fabricate legislative laws and false narratives and hadiths to justify all crimes committed, and then, during the Second Abbasid Era, all such views, falsehoods, lies, fabrications, etc. that were written down formed the Sunnite religions that made the four pre-Umayyad caliphs as infallible deities and their crimes as hallowed acts imposed by Sunnite sharia laws of jihad ascribed forcibly to Islam. Hence, when one criticizes the Sunnite notions applied by ISIS, people would readily declare one as infidel and a heretic apostate who casts doubt on Sunna and hadiths. ISIS terrorists now realize the Wahabi dream of reviving the caliphate that commits now the crimes perpetrated before y the four pre-Umayyad caliphs and later caliphs in their devilish religion sanctified with awe as if it were Islam!

3- Unlike the above case, the Moghuls used to commit atrocious crimes and massacres as they conquered nations in Asia, while claiming they represent the wrath of God and His revenge. Such was the sentiments expressed by Hulago in his letter to the last Abbasid caliph before the destruction of Baghdad. Yet, the Mughals never issued laws and legislations as part of their religion to justify their heinous crimes. Of course, Hulago is hated by the Muhammadans, though crimes he committed were the same ones perpetrated by the evil four pre-Umayyad caliphs and later caliphs. Hulago is better because he never ascribed his crimes to religious laws formulated upon his orders, and he became history, while crimes of the Muhammadans are being repeated in all eras until now because of legislations codified for centuries as if they were part of Islam.

4- Likewise, Tamerlane, successor or Hulago, never brought clergymen to formulate for him religious laws to justify his crimes, massacres, and bloodshed in Iraq, Persia, and Syria. Hence, such atrocities were never the basis of an earthly religion with legislations allowing them to be repeated later on. In one article of ours, we have tackled atrocities and savagery of Tamerlane in Damascus; let us quote a passage from this article of ours: (... When districts of Damascus were distributed among the military leaders of the army of Tamerlane, troops of each leader, upon commands of Tamerlane, would torture severely people in each house to force them to surrender all their money and precious possessions ... Al-Makrizi, the historian, asserts in his accounts that such methods of torture included severe beatings, walking on red-hot coal, being suspended with ropes upside down with a kerchief filled with dust bound around the victims nose, raping the victims' daughters, wives, and sons multiple times before the tied victims' eyes in broad daylight before all people of Damascus to terrorize them, dislocation of body parts by tight ropes being pulled, being suspended with ropes above fire, being burned with fire partially, being burned to death, etc. And such atrocities went on for 19 days until all possession and treasures were confiscated, and thousands of people died of torture ... the remaining women and male and female children were enslaved, after killing all men eventually, and all furniture were confiscated before setting fire to all houses, mosques, and palaces of Damascus, and fire burned the whole city for three consecutive days ... Damascus became mere ruins filled with soot, with thousands of cadavers and corpses everywhere, after the Moghuls left with their looted treasures and their enslaved people ...).

5- Likewise, Massacres, atrocities, and heinous crimes were committed by the Spanish as they re-conquered Spain and rooting out Arabs from Andalusia, and as they conquered Latin America, wiping our civilizations and native people like the Inca, and crusaders in the Levant while raising the cross as their symbol to add religious disguise to their worldly ambitions, and Europeans as they discovered the New World, Americans massacring the Red Indians, all of them driven by worldly causes that used religious mottoes and pretexts, but no one had created religious legislations at the time to support such crimes.

6- Hence, it was easy for white Europeans to admit to their mistakes; the Red Indians are now respected very much inside the USA as the original indigenous people and they pay no taxes at all. All of us have heard about a Catholic pope who apologized for the role of the Church in supporting such massacres. Thus, such massacres and invasions of the New World did not cause any justifying legislations ascribed to God or to religion at all. This is why reform redress, and making amends were not difficult. The Catholic Church is no longer dominating the West political life now, as a curfew was imposed on Catholicism never to leave houses of worship, and its social role is confined now to offering services and caring for the poor, the needy, the refugees, the elderly, etc.

7- The case of the Muhammadans is different; their atrocities, heinous crimes, and massacres became part of the Sunnite religion supported by hadiths, narratives, fiqh, and legislations, which paved the way for Wahabism to emerge in the 18th century A.D. Indeed, Wahabism is a curse spreading utter ruin, destruction, and bloodbaths worldwide, and from Wahabism sprang terrorist organizations like the MB, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS. Indeed, ISIS will not be the last one as long as Sunnite Wahabism dominates.

Lastly:

1- Within the above points, we understand the mentality or mindset of the Sunnite people about whom the male sender of the email message (that we have quoted above in this article) talks; this email message expresses the moral and ethical degeneration of the Sunnites now, especially Wahabis. As long as the Sunnite Wahabism is dominant in the Arab world, deep inside every Sunnite person lies a dormant ISIS terrorist that may spring to life anytime within possible circumstances available: because as long as Sunnite Wahabis believe in the origins/roots of Wahabism (i.e., hadiths, narratives, fiqh, etc.), it will not be difficult to believe in details of Wahabi narratives, notions, and fatwas, etc. that are justifying ISIS terrorism.

2- The name of Islam cannot be cleared from crimes of the Wahabi Sunnites and Muhammadans cannot be reformed unless the Quran is used as the sole criterion to judge religious matters, obeying God in this verse: ""Shall I seek a judge other than God, when He is the One who revealed to you the Book, explained in detail?" Those to whom We gave the Book know that it is the Truth revealed from your Lord. So do not be of those who doubt." (6:114).

3- By the way, the above verse we quote is mentioned in the Quranic text within the context of exposing enemies of God, of the Quran, and of Muhammad who fabricate devilish narratives to supplant the divine revelation of the Quran, like the Muhammadans past and present: "Likewise, We have assigned for every prophet an enemy-human and jinn devils-inspiring one another with fancy words in order to deceive. But had your Lord willed, they would not have done it. So leave them to their fabrications.So that the hearts of those who do not believe in the Hereafter may incline to it, and be content with it, and that they may perpetrate whatever they perpetrate. "Shall I seek a judge other than God, when He is the One who revealed to you the Book, explained in detail?" Those to whom We gave the Book know that it is the Truth revealed from your Lord. So do not be of those who doubt. The Word of your Lord has been completed, in truth and justice. There is no changing to His words. He is the Hearer, the Knower.If you were to obey most of those on earth, they would divert you from God's path. They follow nothing but assumptions, and they only conjecture." (6:112-116). As always, God says nothing but the Truth.

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